Mission
We exist to develop & manufacture exceptional systems
for rapidly expanding electrification markets.
Why do we exist?
Here’s the ugly truth. Approximately 3.9 million barrels of diesel fuel (equal to 5.8 Terawatt-hours of energy) are consumed every day across the United States, mostly by commercial vehicles and equipment. That’s 1.66 megatonnes of CO2 GHG emissions every day. That’s 353 kilotonnes of NOx and 9.92 kilotonnes of SOx gases emitted, poisoning our people and planet, every day. We exist to move the needle on transitioning a century old diesel burning industry to electric.
Estes develops and manufactures exceptional zero-emission power systems that unlock true scale and performance for the electrification of the commercial vehicle and equipment markets. Estes will democratize electrification by enabling powertrain solutions at better cost and performance than diesel solutions, for both high-volume established OEMs making thousands of vehicles per year, and industry newcomers making next generation electrified vehicles and equipment.
Why commercial?
After “passenger cars” took hold in the early 20th century, companies starting inventing vehicles to meet our commercial needs - trucks to carry goods, buses for mass transportation, motorized ferries to carry people over water much faster, construction machines, port equipment, farming equipment, high-speed locomotives, diesel generators. The list goes on. Over time, unlike the passenger car companies that vertically integrated their power components, commercial vehicle and equipment manufacturers (OEMs) generally focused their investments to meet the functionality necessary to deliver the most value to their customers. This allowed a handful of engine manufacturers to provide the power components for thousands of unique commercial vehicles and types of equipment – all built around burning diesel. These machines advanced our world, but at a high cost.
Transition
Our world is changing. As the world embraced internal combustion motorization 150 years ago, it is now transitioning to electrification.
Today, the passenger car EV market is established, and generally has the financial and human capital to develop and manufacture their own customized powertrain systems at scale and in-house. To date, passenger car manufacturers have deployed over 100GWh of passenger cars and light-duty truck EVs in the USA. This effort and investment is to be applauded for sure, however it only addresses the “gasoline” part of the emissions problem, and barely touches the diesel part.
Estes believes that most OEMs are neither organizationally structured nor capitalized to develop and scale their own e-powertrain solutions. Rather, they still place the overwhelming focus on the functionality of their vehicles and equipment. In 2023, commercial OEMs deployed less than 6GWh of electrified vehicles in the United States, primarily due to constrained capacity of battery supply. However, unlike the passenger car market, the commercial OEMs are primarily driven by very simple metrics - initial cost and total cost of operation of their products. Once the numbers pencil out demonstrating electrified versions of vehicles and equipment are cheaper than diesel products, the shift in customer demand will be swift, and forward thinking OEMs will be able to take advantage and supply their advanced technology to the early majority of customers demanding electrified solutions.
The False Choice
At a high level, the commercial vehicle and equipment markets can be characterized by cost sensitive applications (i.e., lowest cost wins) vs high performance applications (i.e. mass sensitive, range sensitive).
For OEMs to compete and generate value in a cost sensitive market, they need a low-cost e-powertrain solution that domestic suppliers are unable to provide. So what happens today? OEMs producing cost sensitive vehicles and equipment must look to low-cost, foreign suppliers, like those in China where the government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars over decades building its now robust battery industry. Geo-political risk, tariffs, federal procurement restrictions, Buy America and USMCA non-compliance risk follow the OEM that elects this path. The result? Material supply risk for the most expensive and important component of EVs, inhibiting OEMs’ ability to truly scale.
For OEMs that need high performance batteries for mass sensitive and range sensitive applications, current domestic battery suppliers developed battery architectures which have achieved parity with diesel from a performance perspective – proving that these difficult commercial vehicles and equipment applications can be electrified. These second generation solutions were architected to provide diesel performance parity but not diesel cost parity. The result? Domestic supply of performance batteries is cost prohibitive to truly scale.
Some OEMs may elect to use their limited capital to develop their specialized electrified equipment and customized battery solutions in-house. What happens? Eventually they realize that battery pack development and manufacturing is a very capital-intensive endeavor which requires technical depth and a requirement to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation in the field. So, they turn back to suppliers, acquire battery companies, or run out of capital for the effort. The result? The vertical integration route has yet to be proven as a scalable solution for most OEMs.
Why did we form Estes?
At Estes, we believe low-cost versus high performance versus vertical integration is a false choice. Estes’ founding team envisioned a new, 3rd generation architecture and an organization that breaks this false choice apart – Estes will provide low-cost, high performance, domestically produced e-powertrain solutions to enable true scale for the underserved commercial vehicle and equipment markets.
At Estes, we will deliver the best e-powertrain solutions for commercial vehicle and equipment applications, allowing OEMs to deploy their capital most efficiently on making the best and highest value commercial vehicle and equipment products for their customers. Together, we can beat diesel on cost and performance, ultimately phasing out diesel and delivering on the promise of an electrified world.
What are our principles to solve this problem?
Simple.
1. Start with People
A company can only be as good as its people.
Generate a gravity well to attract the people of the best character and competence.
Foster an incredible culture where the best people work together to solve deeply meaningful problems.
2. Drive solutions from first principles
with a 3rd generation approach
Architect and engineer systems to make a simple, reliable, and cost-competitive product.
Liberate lightweight and low or zero carbon footprint materials that can be used in automotive-grade processes at scale.
Solve the battery cell multi-chemistry problem to serve both mass-sensitive and cost-sensitive commercial markets.
3. Make things. Here.
Raw material in. Product out. In the United States.
Put the right atoms together - at scale - in a cost-efficient manner.
Partner with the best technology partners. Cells. Electronics. Materials. We will innovate together and share success with those who dare to be bold with us.
How do we do this?
Materials Focus
Estes will focus on its ability to use materials from first principles to meet the goals of performance, platform flexibility, cost, and domestic manufacturing. Estes will focus on building out core competencies to use and engineer the best fit materials to solve problems; structural metal alloys, composites, coating materials, adhesives, thermal materials and more.
Systems Focus
Battery packs oversee multiple domains of vehicle systems and all to connect in cohesive manner - electrochemical systems, structural systems, galvanic systems, thermal systems, electrical HV and LV systems, electronics, controls systems, APIs, cyber security, data, cloud AI & telemetry systems. Estes is focused on building the core competencies in-house that defies hierarchy and empowers the absolute subject matter experts in their systems to collectively overcome ever more complex challenges as the systems integrate.
Domestic Manufacturing Focus
Estes will focus on its ability to build the processes, recipes and equipment to bring materials to the desired form and function in the most scalable and cost-effective way. Estes is committed to manufacturing here -- in the United States. We understand that the underlying conditions overseas are vastly different than those here. We need to solve for cost, scale, automation, decarbonization, and eco-friendly manufacturing, and adapt to the conditions on the ground here -- in the United States. Estes is focused on building a world class manufacturing function, and engineering through the challenges posed by domestic manufacturing.
Economics Focus
Price aggressively. Operate sustainably. Investors demand profitability and customers demand economical solutions, the balance of which creates sustainable business practices key to making a long-term impact. Estes is committed to expanding the US market through fair pricing which beats diesel alternatives, while sustaining and growing our business at a healthy pace.
Customer Focus
At Estes, we’re more than a supplier – we aspire to be a true partner to our customers. Across the team's collective experience over the last two decades, we have lived through the challenges of this market, and we are committed to at-elbow customer support every step of the way. From technical enablement, a seamless contracting process, development support, to service and warranty, we will ensure that our partnership has everything needed to succeed throughout our joint products’ life cycle.
